Around the corner I have a friend, In this great city that has no end; Yet days go by, and weeks rush on, And before I know it, a year is gone, And I never see my old friend’s face, For Life is a swift and terrible race.

He knows I like him just as well as in the days when I rang his bell And he rang mine. We were younger then, And now we are busy, tired men: Tired with playing a foolish game, Tired with trying to make a name.

"Tomorrow" I say, "I will call on Jim, Just to show that I am thinking of him." But tomorrow comes  – and tomorrow goes, and the distance between us grows and grows.

Around the corner – yet miles away…"Here’s a telegram sir," "Jim died today." And that’s what we get, deserve in the end: Around the corner, a vanished friend."